


Imposter

by CrazyCatMeow



Series: MC YouTube and HermitCraft one shots/ short stories [17]
Category: Hermitcraft
Genre: Among Us, Angst, Blood, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Imposters, Teeth, i have hurt people, this is not a nice fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:48:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27198044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyCatMeow/pseuds/CrazyCatMeow
Summary: Xb’s been acting a bit sus.
Relationships: Family - Relationship, nope
Series: MC YouTube and HermitCraft one shots/ short stories [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2117622
Comments: 12
Kudos: 42





	Imposter

**Author's Note:**

> Trigger Warnings  
> Cannibalism  
> Blood  
> Teeth regrowth

Grim faced the hermits stand at the edge of the platform in the end. It had come time for them to leave season six. Something had happened to the world hop systems so they have to use an old end shuttle. The only problem with this is the recent reports. Others who have traveled have had odd things happening, the crewmembers start behaving odd then a string of murders. When someone gets killed they would respawn and reappear at the last world they were in.

Most people have decided to wait until the world hoping system is back up. Others have turned it into a game. The hermits are risking traveling to a new world. Their own having grown too crowded and is corrupting slightly.

Xb is the last hermit on, as he steps forward a small bug jumps at him, swatting it out of the air Xb frowns momentarily. Rubbing his hand he walks onto the shuttle.

The doors woosh closed behind him. Xisuma smiles at him, “Are you ok?”

“Oh, I’m just a little nervous about the imposter thing,” Xb admits.

Smiling beneath his helmet Xisuma replies, “It’ll be ok, I won’t let anyone get hurt.”

Nodding softly Xb sighs, “I feel like something is going to go wrong.”

Wels walks over and messes up his hair, “We’re all here, what’s the worst that could happen?” 

Nodding Xb agrees, “Yeah you’re right.”

With a kind smile Xisuma helps him up and they start walking over to Xb’s room in the shuttle, “Go to sleep, we can assign jobs tomorrow.”

Nodding Xb rubs his hand and looks around the room. It’s fairly small, clean, there’s a desk in one corner and a bed on the wall. 

As he changes into his pajamas he gets an odd panicked feeling, before it fades he could have sworn he heard something. Brushing it off he repeats what Xisuma had said to himself, “ It’ll be ok, I won’t let anyone get hurt.”

Falling asleep he completely buries himself in blankets. The next morning he’s woken by a knock at the door. 

“You’ve got fifteen minutes,” Keralis calls through the door, “Xisuma is going to give us tasks.”

“Thanks,” Xb calls back as he wiggles out of his bed.

Yawning he squints at himself in the mirror, something’s off. He can’t really put a finger on it but something’s changed. 

As he turns away from the mirror he yawns again. His jaw seems to stretch wider. 

Sitting down next to Mumbo in the cafeteria Xb grins, “Hi.”

“Hey,” Mumbo grins as Iskall wanders over.

As they start eating Xisuma walks over to the front of the room. He gives them the tasks for the day and distributes a few notebooks for people to keep track of things in.

When he passes Xb he smiles at him, Xb grins back. 

A few hours later Xb’s finished with his chores so he wanders off to find something to do. He ends up in the kitchen.

“Hey Xb,” Ren grins over at him, “What brings you over here?”

“Oh, I completed my chores so I decided to explore.”

Ren grins, “Well I’ve got a map of this place if you want it.” 

Nodding Xb takes the map and looks over where everything is, “What’s that room?”

“That’s where Xisuma’s staying,” Ren explains, “He’s the captain so he gets the big fancy room.”

Xb laughs as the doors push open revealing Joe and Cleo. Both grinning and laughing together. 

“We can’t waste anything,” Joe instructs as he pulls a bag of flour down, turning to Xb and Ren he explains, “We’re making cookies.”

Ren grins, “Can we help.”

Cleo nods, “Absolutely, then we can pin the blame on you.”

Laughing Xb helps Joe pull out some of the ingredients. 

The four spend time making the cookies Xb grins as he tries one. It’s good, the doors swing open as Doc enters.

“You want a cookie?” Ren asks as the creeper sniffs at the air slightly.

“Uhh, sure,” He mutters as he takes one, “Something smells off, I don’t know what it is but something’s wrong.”

Xb’s face falls, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s not… I don’t know.”

The doors shutter open as Xisuma kicks them open, “Doc, stop going around to scare people.”

“I’m not,” The creeper defends, “Something’s wrong.”

“Nothing’s wrong, if it makes you feel better I’ll have everyone do a scan tonight.”

Doc nods.

“Now you four what were you doing?” Xisuma asks, as he turns around Cleo shoves a cookie in her mouth.

“Do you want a cookie?” Joe asks.

“What, oh, ok,” Xisuma mutters as he takes one of the cookies. 

One by one all the hermits trickle in and steal the cookies. Once everyone is gathered they help make dinner. 

After that’s done Xisuma ushers everyone into the med bay to get medical scans. One by one the hermits cycle through the scanner each time everything comes up normal.

When it’s Xb’s turn everything runs smoothly. There’s a small glitch that Xisuma just brushes off. It looked like there was another row of teeth waiting to grow in.

“See doc, everything is fine.”

“I don't know, something’s off,” Doc hisses, ”Something is wrong and I don’t like it.”

Xisuma hums softly, “I’ll keep a lookout.”

As Xisuma turns to walk away Doc stops him, “Did anything weird happen with the scanner anyone?”

“Uh it glitched up a few times. That’s why I had Jevin and False redo it.”

Doc squints at Xisuma before wandering off to his room.

As the hermits file back to their rooms, they are all chatting and joking around.

Shuffling into his room Xb yawns, he freezes when he catches his reflection, “Is that normal?” His mouth seems to open a bit wider than it should. A growing sense of anxiety builds. Shaking his head clear of the horrifying thought that something’s happening to him, Xb decides that he just never noticed how wide he could open his mouth.

After a few minutes of opening and closing his mouth. He decides that it’s probably fine, he’s seen Doc open his mouth that wide before.

As he’s falling asleep the thought that Doc’s not human crosses his mind. With that he sinks into the realm of sleep.

The next morning he wakes and he’s really hungry. So like any reasonable person he heads to the cafeteria. When he gets there Xisuma waves to him before continuing his conversation with Joe. 

No one else is awake yet so XB just grabs some food and sits at a table. As he takes a bite, he scrunches his nose a little. It tastes off somehow… it’s not bad, just bland.

Not wanting to bother Xisuma or Joe he keeps eating after he finishes Xisuma gives him the chore list and he sets off to complete the jobs for the day.

This cycle repeats for a few days, the food's taste doesn’t improve but it's edible. He deals with the lack of flavor and just rolls with it he doesn’t want to mention anything so he doesn’t.

One morning he wakes up and takes a step out of his room only to be spun around and shoved back in.

“Something happened, I don’t know what but stay here,” Jevin says nervously as he locks the door. Xb sits down on his bed as he hears the commotion in the hallway. 

Xisuma’s boots thud against the ground as he runs towards where Scar had found Wels. As he rounds the corner he freezes. 

Wels laying on the ground in a pool of his own blood. It looks like something had tried to drag him into a vent. Chunks of his flesh were torn from his body. 

The others are all sitting in shocked silence in the cafeteria. As Xisuma walks back in he quickly does a head count.

“Where‘s Xb?” He asks, his voice quavering.

“He’s in his room,” Jevin answers quickly, “X, he had something red all over his face. I don’t know what that means but I don’t think he’s ok.”

Xisuma sits down as a wave a guilt washes over him, “This is my fault.”

“It’s not,” Doc says, “You did the medbay scans.”

“Not that part, when we started he was terrified so scared that there would be an imposter.”

Grian speaks up, “Now that you mention it, the imposters start killing the first chance they get. I’ve done tasks with him and he hasn’t done anything.”

“I have an idea,” Xisuma says as he stands up, “It’ll be a little risky but it might work. Let’s bring him here, tell him what happened and see how he reacts.”

Doc nods, “See if he even knows what’s happening.”

“Does anyone know how imposters infect people?” Stress asks.

Tango sighs, “Not really, I think it’s some sort of parasite that infects people’s brains.” 

Xisuma looks up, “He had some sort of bug bite on his hand didn’t he?”

“I think so.”

“Should we go get him?” Xisuma asks.

After a moment of murmuring the hermits agree to go and get him.

Xisuma nods shortly as he goes and retrieves Xb. He finds the younger man curled up on his bed. As Jevin had said there was dried blood on his mouth. As Xisuma steps in Xb scrambles back.

“Xb, what happened?” Xisuma murmurs as he pulls him up.

As they walk to the cafeteria Xb explains what had happened, “I woke up and Jevin pushed me back into my room. He looked scared.”

When they step into the somber cafeteria Xb looks up at Xisuma, “Did something’s happened?” His voice quavers slightly.

Doc and Etho both start typing on their communicators under the table, taking notes.

Xisuma carefully sits him down, “There’s an imposter-“

Xb takes a shuttering gasp as he realizes what Xisuma’s saying.

“They got Wels,” Xisuma gently explains.

Tears drip silently down Xb’s face. As Xisuma gently explains what had happened. The hermits make a decision, he definitely doesn’t know he’s the imposter.

As Xb rubs at his face some of the dried blood comes off on his hands, he makes the decision to tell Xisuma something, “X, something weird is happening.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, my taste buds are all messed up, everything tastes bland and Uh, I can open my mouth too wide.”

Now Xisuma’s worried, “How wide?”

Xb doesn’t say anything but motions towards Doc.

“Come with me, everyone else stay here,” Xisuma orders. 

As Xisuma ushers Xb into a room he says something that would echo in Xb’s mind for days, “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you,” With that Xisuma slides the door shut and locks it.

Xb stares silently at the door stunned, “X, what’s happening? Why’d you lock me in here?”

Xisuma pulls his helmet off and places his hand on the glass door, “I’m sorry,” After that he walks away.

Sliding down the wall Xb looks around the room he was locked in. It’s Xisuma’s. Starting to cry again he grabs a pillow and hugs it. He’s so confused, nothing makes sense. They aren’t telling him anything, all he knows is there’s an imposter somewhere and Wels is dead. Who knows when he would respawn in the old world. 

A few hours later Grian walks over and shoves a plate of food under the door. He glares at Xb, before walking away. 

Xb whimpers as fresh tears slide down his cheeks. From down the hall a soft thwack is heard, picking his head up Xb sees Mumbo chewing a rather sheepish looking Grian. 

He picks at his food for a moment before eating, for not having eaten all day he’s not as hungry as he would have thought. 

Xisuma shows up almost thirty minutes after dinner was completed. He talks to Xb for a bit but once he asks why he’s here Xisuma leaves.

He feels abandoned, no one‘s willing to talk. He wraps himself in blankets as fresh tears drip down his face. A few minutes later he’s fast asleep. 

For about three days it’s like this, alone in the room with people bringing him food. The only people who stop by to talk to him are Cleo, Joe, Hypno, Doc and Xisuma. The others either haven’t come by or just give him food in silence. 

Iskall walks by and pushes a plate under the door, he grins at Xb and taps at the glass.

Xb looks up and waves, Iskall waves back.

“Hey, can you give me the dirty dishes?” Iskall asks, calling through the glass.

“Uhh, yeah,” Xb answers as he scrambles off the chair he was sitting on. As he collects the dishes an odd feeling washes over him, “Iskall, I think you should run, I don’t know why but I think something bad’s about to happen.” 

Iskall’s eye dims momentarily as he sends a message to Xisuma. He backs up as Xb’s face seems to contort and twist. His eyes have gone from light brown to pitch black.

Xb makes an unholy shrieking sound as he launches himself at the door. Which shutters on the hinges, he claws at the door scratching trying to get to Iskall. 

Watching in frozen fear Iskall watches as… that thing that had taken over Xb’s body tries to get through the door. 

The banging and scratching stops as Xb slumps to the ground unconscious. Xisuma runs around the corner and freezes looking at the mess. 

Carefully he reaches for the door handle.

“What are you doing?” Iskall hisses, “He could kill you.”

“He’s unconscious and probably won’t wake up, I’m just going to pick the plates up.”

Iskall leans against the wall as Xisuma carefully picks his way around the room picking up plates.

As he leaves the room Xb starts to wake up. Xisuma pushes the plates to Iskall as he kneels next to the door.

“Xisuma? What happened?”

Xisuma takes a breath to reply but Xb cuts him off.

“Oh, gosh, I killed Wels... I ate Wels,” His face turns green as he runs into the small bathroom connected to the room. 

As he returns fresh tears are streaming down his face, “You knew that I killed him. You all did…”

“I did mean to tell you. I-I just, I feel like I failed you, I told you I would keep you safe, but… this happened.”

Xb sits down heavily on the bed, “i don’t like this,” He whispers as he leans against the wall. 

A small thud of something hitting glass draws his attention, Xisuma takes his helmet off and rests his forehead against the glass, “We’ll find a way to fix this, if we can’t no one can hold it against you.”

“Hold it against me? I ate Wels for crying out loud.”

Cleo overhears this and wanders over, “Wels will respawn, he’ll be fine.”

“But, I literally ripped him apart and ate him…” Xb stutters, intimidated by the Zombie staring at him.

Cleo shoos Xisuma away, she motions for Xb to come close to the door, “I’m a zombie, I’ve eaten people.”

Xb frowns not really liking where this was going.

“We have different situations but no one is going to hold you to what’s happened,” Cleo stands up after a few minutes of talking, “Think about that for a while.”

As she walks away Xb sniffles a little before pulling himself together, and trying to fall asleep. Too much has happened in a short amount of time and he needs some proper sleep.

As he lays in bed thinking about everything that’s happened, a sinking feeling fills his stomach. He couldn’t remember trying to attack the glass for a few minutes but now he can and hunting down Wels is coming back to him as well.

He remembers walking out in the hallway and stumbling across Wels. He had smiled at him and Xb smiled back before lunging towards him and killing him. There was a nearby vent perfect for dragging prey into. He only managed to get a little of food from Wels before footsteps echo down the hall. Scrambling into the vent Xb ends up in the showers, after washing most of the blood off he went back to sleep.

The next morning Xisuma finds him with tears streaming down his face as he sleeps. As he brings him his food he leaves a cup with hot chocolate. He waits for Xb to wake up.

As he walks over to retrieve the food he freezes as he spots Xisuma staring at him. He brings a hand up to rub at his eyes.

“Sorry, I was waiting for you so I could tell you. We’ve got two more weeks before we reach the new world.”

His already crestfallen face falls a bit more, “Two more weeks until what? You let me out so I can go on a killing spree.”

Xisuma leans back against the glass, “Two weeks until we let you out so you can start working on your base. Two weeks till we can hangout again.”

“How do you know? You’ve said it yourself, I wasn’t ‘infected’ properly. I’m all messed up how do you know that once we get to the world I’ll be better?”

“I don’t, but even if you stay like this we’ll be here for you.”

“What if I kill someone?”

“They will respawn,” Xisuma says simply, “I’ve got stuff to do, I’ll be back in a bit.”

Xb walks into the bathroom and looks at his reflection. There are noticeable tear tracks stained on his cheeks. As he washes his face his mouth starts hurting. He opens his mouth and starts looking for something wrong.

He doesn’t spot anything, but as he pokes at his teeth it sends a jolt of pain into his jaw.

Wincing he stumbles into the main room and grabs his jacket looking for his communicator. It’s not there.

Slowly he stands up and walks back into the bathroom. As he looks in the mirror he spots something off. His canines look off, not sharper than normal but… not in the right spot.

Carefully he pokes at the teeth and when they wiggle he jerks his hands away. He walks back over to the table and waits for someone to walk by.

Unable to resist Xb pokes at his teeth with his tongue. It’s not hurting as much anymore so he continues to poke at the loose teeth. Which was swiftly becoming all of them.

He knows in the back of his mind that he probably shouldn’t be doing that but with no way to call the others and asks for help he’s stuck.

Zedaph is walking down the hall and he spots Xb frantically waving him over. Cautiously he steps forwards, “Do you need something?”

“Uh can you find X?” Xb slurs.

“Yeah, I’ll go get him,” Zedaph agrees as he turns to go and find Xisuma. 

An iron taste fills Xb’s mouth as pain returns full force.

Xisuma’s boots echo against the aluminum flooring as he runs towards Xb. When he gets there he’s met by the sight of Xb spitting into the sink, “Oh my goodness, are you alright?”

Xb doesn’t look up. Instead he grabs some water and swishes it around in his mouth before spitting the slightly pink water out. 

Reaching towards the door Xisuma freezes, he can’t go in. 

A few minutes later Xb walks over, “X i think this is getting worse. Look,” He opens his mouth and shows Xisuma the spots where his teeth were missing and tiny little fangs were poking through the gums.

“When did this start happening?”

“Bout an hour ago.”

“How much does it hurt?”

“A lot,” The quaver in his voice is evident.

Xisuma leans down and gently sits against the wall.

They stay like that for a few hours just sitting near each other.

By the time Doc stops by to bring Xb dinner his teeth are all budding fangs. When Xb covers his mouth out of embarrassment. Doc grins at him, with full fanged teeth.

Xb stares up at Doc before thanking him for the food and starting to eat. The food’s starting to taste bland again and Xb can’t help but feel that the food’s taste is at least somewhat connected to him eating Wels. 

As a few days pass his fangs fully grow in and the food's taste stays the same but it’s starting to hurt his stomach a little. 

He’s told Xisuma about it and he and Doc have been trying to find something he can eat. At breakfast he had almost thrown up and he hadn’t seen anyone since. He’s heard a few shouts and muffled banging. There's probably some sort of meeting going on. 

After almost thirty minutes silence falls. A few minutes later Cleo stops by bringing him lunch and a juice box.

Xb Raises an eyebrow, “A juice box?”

“Yeah,” Cleo grins. 

“Ok?” Xb mutters as he puts the plate on the table.

Cleo waves as she walks away. 

Slowly Xb eats his food before picking up the juice box.

“Hold on,” Xisuma says as he walks over, “The others out voted me on this but I feel like you should know. Imposters need blood every so often. That’s blood in there.”

Xb frowns as he pokes at the juice box, he’s not as disgusted by the thought that that’s blood as he should be. By the thought that some of the others wanted to trick him into drinking it, that’s disgusting.

Picking it up again Xb pokes the straw in, “i hope I don’t regret this,” He takes a tiny little sip and wrinkles his nose, before drinking the rest.

Xisuma stands in silence for a moment before looking over, “You ok ”

“Physically, yeah. Mentally, no,” Xb answers. 

Xisuma laughs softly as Doc walks up behind him. As they talk Xisuma seems to get defensive, Xb’s suddenly afraid. A few minutes later, Jevin and Iskall round the corner and glare at Xisuma.

“We agreed not to tell him,” Jevin snaps.

Xb frowns as they continue arguing, he scoots back against the wall and sits on his bed as they shout at each other.

Jevin smacks the glass and motions for Xb to come over, “X told you that it had blood in it?”

Xb nods.

“Thank you. Suma, you shouldn’t have told him.”

They continue yelling, Xb covers his ears and flattens against the wall. As the volume continues to rise it all becomes too much and he starts screaming.

He dubbels over in pain as something starts shifting in his stomach. He feels this rumbling in his stomach. it doesn't feel good at all, it feels like he could fall apart at any moment.

The others freeze as he falls to the ground writhing in pain. Doc grabs Xisuma and stops him from rushing into the room. 

In an instint his flesh starts to ripple and warp, and then his middle splits, rips open and shows razor sharp teeth and a sharp needle like tongue. Xb passes out. The strain is too much for his body. The monster is still awake and it is, Hungry.

Sharp teeth clash against each other as Xb growls at the door. Doc says something to Iskall who turns tail and runs. 

A few minutes later he comes back with a few raw stakes and a small vial of blood. Xisuma puts the meat on a plate and drips the blood over it before shoving it through the slot in the door.

They watch in horror as he consumes it whole, and then the mouth closes up. Disappearing seamlessly into Xb’s unconscious body. 

As he starts waking up, tears slowly build up in his eyes. As he looks over he sees Xisuma looking at him. Swallowing hard, Xb bursts into tears. He had tried to attack them again and this time he had split in half to try and eat them.

The sound of something sliding across the ground draws his attention. It’s his communicator. Xisuma smiles softly at him as he picks it up and flicks it on. He’s immediately flooded by messages from the others all saying they love him and that he’s got this.

There’s an apology from Iskall and Jevin saying sorry for yelling and tapping on his room's glass. Cleo and Joe have sent him stories. 

This helps him so much and for the first time in a week he truly smiles. After that he’s gotten a lot better at controlling the imposter. He’s got his friends with him and as long as he gets fed he’ll stay human, of course if he feels threatened he will attack but that can’t really be avoided.

Now there are some things that he can do even though he’s stuck in one room. He’s been given the task of organizing files to be placed in the admin rooms.

As he stacks papers on his table his foot brushes the box they came in. Something in his head clicks, he sits next to the box and pokes at it. As he looks at the huge box the room suddenly feels way too big. Climbing into the box he feels safer and he starts laughing.

After a few minutes Xb shakes his head and clambers out of the box. As he returns to his work he keeps looking back at the box. After he finishes his job he sends Doc a message telling him he can pick the box up.

As he pulls the box away he catches Xb’s eyes, “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I… Uh, I liked the box.”

Doc grins, “I’ll bring it back.” 

“Thanks,” Xb murmurs embarrassed slightly.

As the days slowly tick by the hermits have Xb rejoin them during meals and slowly start letting him do real tasks. He’s constantly accompanied by Doc and Xisuma but it’s so much better than being stuck in a room.

As they arrive in the new world Xb watches as everyone heads off to get started, he swims off and explores the new world.

**Author's Note:**

> The imposters are like a mix of the parasites from the manga Parasyte and Yeerks from Animorphs
> 
> If you think I should add any other tags/ warnings or liked this please comment.


End file.
